So, today I went ahead and purchased the Nike Ites in black. I also have the Kaiju. I will compare the Ites to those. The liner strap is a little bigger. Sole of shoe is exactly the same. The Ites without any stiffness bars are exactly the same boot IMO. With the siffest bar in the Ites, they feel similar to the Burton Driver X with out their stiffness piece. I will admit this boot is not as stiff as I thought before I tried it on. What I like about this boot is you only need one boot. The stiffness bars really do work. Now I can have one boot for freestyle and freeride. Just thought I would share.

So, today I went ahead and purchased the Nike Ites in black. I also have the Kaiju. I will compare the Ites to those. The liner strap is a little bigger. Sole of shoe is exactly the same. The Ites without any stiffness bars are exactly the same boot IMO. With the siffest bar in the Ites, they feel similar to the Burton Driver X with out their stiffness piece. I will admit this boot is not as stiff as I thought before I tried it on. What I like about this boot is you only need one boot. The stiffness bars really do work. Now I can have one boot for freestyle and freeride. Just thought I would share.

Hmmm, interesting. You should take some pictures of the boot with the stiffness bars and post them up. Those boots seem pretty nice but they're definitely not cheap.